The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Teachings #263
263. The Lord is the Word. The sole subject of the deepest meaning of the Word is the Lord, and it describes all the phases of the glorification of his human nature (that is, of its union with the divine nature itself), as well as all the phases of his taking control of the hells and setting in order everything there and in the heavens: 2249, 7014. So in this meaning there is a description of the Lord's whole life in our world, and by means of this there is a constant presence of the Lord with the angels: 2523. At the very center of the Word there is only the Lord, and this is the source of what is divine and holy in the Word: 1873, 9357. The Lord's saying that the Scripture about him was fulfilled [Luke 18:31; 24:44] was referring to everything in the deepest meaning of the Word: 7933.
"The Word" means divine truth: 4692, 5075, 9987. The Lord is the Word because he is divine truth: 2533. The Lord is the Word also because the Word comes from him and is about him (2859); and in its deepest meaning is about no one but the Lord, so the Lord himself is there (1873, 9357); and also because there is a marriage of divine goodness and divine truth throughout the Word and in its every detail (3004, 5502). "Jesus" means divine goodness and "Christ" means divine truth: 3004, 3005, 3009. Divine truth [ coming from divine goodness] is the sole reality, and only what it dwells in-which comes from what is divine-is substantial: 5272, 6880, 7004, 8200. 1 And because divine truth emanating from the Lord is heaven's light and divine goodness is its warmth, and because everything there comes into being from that light and warmth, and because this earthly world as a whole comes into being by means of heaven or the spiritual world, we can see that everything that has been created has been created from divine truth-that is, from the Word, just as it says in John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things that were made were made through him. And the Word became flesh" [John 1:1, 3, 14]: 2803, 2894, 5272, 7678. For more on the creation of everything by divine truth and therefore by the Lord, see §137 of the book Heaven and Hell. A fuller picture can be drawn from two of its chapters: §§116-125 ["The Sun in Heaven"] and 126-140 ["Light and Warmth in Heaven"].
A joining together of the Lord and us is accomplished through the Word, by means of its inner meaning: 10375. Absolutely everything in the Word is a means to this joining together, and this is why the Word is more wondrous than anything else that has been written: 10632, 10633, 10634. Now that the Word has been written, the Lord speaks to us through it: 10290.
Fußnoten:
1. Substance, in its philosophical sense, is the basic, underlying constituent that carries the attributes of a thing. Thus, for example, Swedenborg elsewhere stipulates that without substance the attribute of form cannot be present ( True Christianity 52). A rough idea of substance can be obtained by thinking of it as the spiritual equivalent of what we call matter. In this passage, and in several of the Secrets of Heaven passages referred to here (§§5272, 6880, 8200), Swedenborg indicates that divine truth is not merely mental thought, or spoken or written words, but the reality itself that underlies everything in the universe. Therefore all things actually proceed from it, and it literally gives them substance. Although some of these passages appear to ascribe this all-encompassing role to divine truth alone, it seems clear that Swedenborg is not excluding divine goodness: In one of the passages just mentioned, Secrets of Heaven 5272, he writes that "divine truth coming from divine goodness is the most real and most essential thing there is in the universe" (emphasis added; this passage is the origin of the material presented in brackets here in the main text). Elsewhere he presents the two divine attributes as completely integrated, as the singular verbs in the proposition of Divine Love and Wisdom 40 suggest: "Divine love and wisdom is substance and is form. " For further discussion of the idea of substance in Swedenborg's works, see Brown 1919, 398-413; for relevant passages in Swedenborg's works, see those collected at Odhner 1986, 6 with note 1 in New Jerusalem 4. [SS, JSR, RS]
Arcana Coelestia #2249
2249. 'Abraham drew near and said' means the Lord's thought from the Human, which thought allied itself more closely to the Divine. This follows from what has gone before where the subject is the Lord's thought regarding the human race, and so follows without explanation. Described at great length in this chapter in the internal sense is the state of the Lord's thought and perception, and in the opening part of it the state of the conjunction of the Lord's Human with His Divine.
[2] To men it will perhaps seem as though these matters were not of such great importance, yet they are of the utmost importance. For these great matters, together with their representatives, are brought before the angels - for whom the internal sense constitutes the Word - in a most beautiful form. Countless other matters are also presented which follow from them and bear resemblance to them regarding the conjunction of the Lord with heaven and the reception of His Divine within their human. Indeed angels' ideas are such that they relish those matters more than anything else and perceive them as being most delightful. Thereby they are also enlightened and confirmed more and more regarding the matter of the union of the Lord's Human Essence with His Divine Essence. For angels were once men; and when they were men they could not do other than think of the Lord as a man, and of the Lord as God, and also of the Divine Trinity, and so formulate various ideas for themselves, though they did not know the nature of those ideas at the time.
[3] The position with heavenly arcana is that although they lie beyond all apprehension, everyone nevertheless formulates for himself some idea of them, for nothing can ever be retained in the memory, still less enter any thought whatever, except through some idea, however this came to be formed. And since angels' ideas could not be formed except from those objects that exist in the world, or from objects analogous to those in the world; and since at that time illusions arising from things that were not understood entered in - illusions which in the next life alienate the then more interior ideas of thought from the truth and good of faith - therefore much is said in this chapter in its internal sense, to dispel such illusions, regarding the conjunction of the Lord's Human with the Divine and regarding His perception and thought. And when men read the Word those matters enter at the same time into the perception of angels in such a way that previous ideas that had been formed from alien sources and from scruples easily arising out of these are gradually dispersed, and new ideas are instilled which are in keeping with the light of truth that angels possess. This happens more among spiritual angels than celestial, for it is in the measure that ideas are purified that spiritual angels are made more perfect for receiving celestial things. It is well known that even heaven is not pure in the sight of the Lord, 1 for it is indeed true that angels are constantly being made more perfect.
Fußnoten:
